Metallized fibrous packing



Patented Dec. 7, 1937 UNITED STATES METALLIZED FIBBOUS PACKING Hugh T.Stewart, Palmyra, N. Y., assig'nor to The Garlock Packing Company,Palmyra, N. Y., a corporation of New York No Drawing. ApplicationSeptember 26, 1935, Serial No. 42,283

1 Claim.

My present invention relates to packings, and more particularly tofibrous packings, and aims to provide certain improvements therein.

Packings composed of fibrous materials have 5 long been known and used,and in their makeup almost every known type of fibre has been used,such, for example, asbestos, fiax. hemp, jute, cotton. etc. In themaking of such packings these fibres have either been compacted intomasses of definite dimensions and bonded together or have been spun intoyarns and further processed by weaving, braiding or twisting the yarnsinto definite dimensions. Of course, textile packings offer frictionalresistance to the movement of mobile parts with which they come incontact, hence various lubricants have been employed to overcome orreduce this frictional resistance. Such lubricants have included oils,greases, waxes, graphite and the like, with which the various fibrousyarns or fabrics have been saturated or impregnated. Such treatments,however, are not efiective for any great length of time since the oilsand greases are eliminated from the packings by heat and pressure.Moreover, modern practice in power generation and industrial processestends toward higher temperatures and pressures, and in view thereof theefiective life of textile pack ngs is reduced accordingly.

Frictional resistance in fibrous packings has also been reduced and thelife of such packings correspondingly increased by incorporatingtherein, auxiliary strands, wires or ribbons of metals or metallicalloys. by braiding, weaving or twisting the composite yarns to form thepacking material. This latter mode of procedure, however. is a slow andcostly operation because of the dimculties encountered in the braidingor weaving of such composite materials, the components of which havesuch wide differences in physical characteristics.

It is accordingly the primary object of the present invention to providea packing material wh ch possesses all of the desirable characteristicsof fibrous textile packings, such as high internal strength, resiliencyand heat resistance, and to combine therewith the friction-reducing andlong life properties of packings formed of braided. woven or twistedcomposite fibres and metal strands. A further object of my invention isto provide an economical packing composed of metal and fibres. A stillfurther object is to provide a packing material consisting ofmetal-covered fibres.

The foregoing and other objects of my inven tion, which will be apparentfrom the detailed description which follows, I accomplish bysubstantially entirely coating fibrous material, and particularlytextile yarns, with a covering or layer of metal or metallic alloy.Preferably the cover ing of the fibres is accomplished by bonding to thefibres, metal in the finely divided state, such,

' for'example, very fine powder with a suitable bonding material, suchas rubber in solution, resins, gums, waxes, drying oils or the like. Theadhesion of the metal to the fibres may be carried out in practice byfirst coating the yarns with the adhesive material and then applyingfinely divided metal particles thereto by dipping, spraying, dusting orother means which may be found practicable. The metallized or metalcovered fibres or yarns may then be compacted. braided, woven or twistedto sections or shapes of required dimensional sizes.

While in practice I contemplate first forming the fibres into yarns andthen coating the yarns with metal, after which they may be twisted,woven or braided into desired sections, nevertheless it is within thescope of my invention to first substantially coat the individual fibreswith metal or even provide a suitable packing from compacted uncoatedfibres or from uncoated twisted, braided or woven yarns, and applying ametallic coating to such material after it has been, or while it isbeing, formed to required shape or size for use.

As coating material for the metallized fibrous packing I prefer to usealuminum because of its advantageous physical and chemicalcharacteristics, as well as its abundancy, low cost and large coveringcapacity. It will be understood, however, that I do not wish to belimited to the use of aluminum or any specific metal or metallic alloyas the coating material nor to any specific fibre as the fibrousmaterial of the packings contemplated by my present invention. sincethese may be chosen and varied within the range of engineering skill,dependent upon the characteristics of the final packing desired, withoutdeparting from the spirit of my invention.

What I claim is:

A braided or woven packing material consisting of yarns, the individualstrands of which have a coating of powdered metal adhesively bondedthereon prior to the braiding or weaving of thc strands into a body ofdefinite dimensions.

HUGH T. STEWART.

